Sharp Shooter Case Study: Wolverine Harley-Davidson

What began as a dream for two businessmen in 2001 is now 42,000 square feet of Harley-Davidson reality. Owner and Operator, George de la Nuez opened up the largest H-D dealership in Southeast Michigan less than ten months later. The two-story, red brick structure recalls the historic Milwaukee Motorcycle Factory with its limestone details, metal overhangs and large glass windows. Having experienced the culture of this amazing dealership first-hand, the only thing better than the facility is the staff. Spend 15 minutes in this dealership and you’ll leave feeling like family. That dedication to their customer base has paid off. Fast-forward to 2019, not only have they been awarded a Platinum Bar & Shield but they’ve also won the Powersports Dealer Locator National Dealer of the Year Award for the 5th straight year!

Solution:

Wolverine Harley has consistently invited between 5,000-10,000 past customers into their dealership twice per month for a Sharp Shooter Event; rain or shine, 70 and sunny or two feet of snow on the ground, they haven’t waivered.

The goal of executing consistent Sharp Shooter Events is to:

1) Increase the number of active customers and

2) Increase average customer value by increasing frequency of visits.

The results have been incredible. When they first started marketing with us, they had 3,400 active customers. In 2018, they finished with just shy of 9,000! They have more than doubled motorcycle sales (from 500 to over 1200) and more than tripled revenue (because the average customer is visiting the dealership many more times per year and spending more money).

The Sharp Shooter Program targets customers with up to 12 different, direct marketing strategies ensuring they receive the message multiple times. By increasing the number of times they get the message, we increase response to the survey site and traffic through the doors on event day. Big picture, this multi-touch approach makes it easy to touch their buying base 52-104 times over the course of the year which puts a fence around their herd and makes them immune to other offers from other dealers. Overtime, it helps increase the number of customers spending money with the dealership and on average, how much they spend annually leading to predictable growth for the store.

Focusing the message on the party elements of their event (food, drinks, door prizes, demo rides, etc.) not only attracted the small number of folks who were ready to buy but hundreds more customers who didn’t plan on buying anything that Saturday, resulting in tons of impulse purchases and pipeline for future sales.

Results:

Carla said, “We had a lot of fun at our New Year’s Bash Event and a great turnout. Hundreds of people showed up to see if they won the bike and we ended up having a great day in over the counter sales and even rolled 6 bikes with a few more working!” Despite the bitter cold, they even had a few brave souls go for demo rides resulting in bike deals. Carla said three of the deals came directly because of the chance to win the motorcycle and after not winning, they pulled the trigger on a new Harley.

Executing on all four pillars of the Sharp Shooter Program - Right Audience, Right Media, Right Message & Right Timing, really paid off. The program generated 128 people registering to win the Whistle Flashlight Keychain, for a total of 106 leads in Service, P&A and MotorClothes, including 22 people interested in a new or used unit!